6. Summarize What Has Been Learned and What is Still Unknown
The next step in the roadmap is take steps to interpret and reflect on the findings of a policy or program evaluation. It encourages identifying the most important conclusions, the evidence supporting them, and how they connect to broader state goals. For process evaluations, it asks whether implementation could be replicated elsewhere and what resources might improve it. For impact evaluations, it focuses on the significance of the results, potential confounding factors, and limitations. Ultimately, these questions guide teams in considering how findings inform future work and possible revisions to the program or policy.
6.1. Understanding findings and their implications.
6.1.1. What are the most important findings?
| Example | The Tennessee team learned that school districts and educator would benefit from more flexible funding that could be used to support preparation in school education (e.g., PRAXIS exam fees). |
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6.1.2. What is the evidence supporting these conclusions?
| Example | The Ohio team used a combination of participants’ responses to Likert-type and open-ended questions to describe beginning administrators’ leadership practices. |
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6.1.3. How do these findings relate to broader efforts or goals in the state?
6.1.4. Have preliminary findings been shared with diverse audiences to interpret findings?
| Example | The Tennessee team shared their findings with the registered teacher apprenticeship team in the state. Insights informed the development of a new special education additional endorsement opportunity for current teachers. |
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For impact evaluations:
6.1.5. How large of a relationship did we find? Is it practically significant?
6.1.6. Are there factors the team could not account for that may shape the outcome? If so, how might they affect the results?
6.2. Evaluating implementation and planning next steps.
For process evaluations:
6.2.1. Would we expect implementation to be similar if the program/policy is scaled to new sites?
6.2.2. What additional resources would improve implementation?
6.2.3. What limitations did the evaluation have? How does this limit the inferences we are trying to make?
6.2.4. What are the implications for future work on the SLT?
6.2.5. If the program or policy was found to be ineffective, how might it be revised?
| Example | The Tennessee team found that many educators pursued the endorsement coursework as a professional development opportunity; they did not intend to teach special education. With what the team learned, teacher candidates must agree to teach as a special education teacher in a Tennessee public school upon completion of coursework and licensure. |
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